HAVANA – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he would travel alone to the U.N. General Assembly in New York – on horseback if necessary – after slamming Washington for denying visas for his security and medical team.
“They denied visas for my security and my doctors. They don't want my advance party in New York,” Chavez said Thursday when arriving in communist Cuba for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement of developing nations.

“I'm going even if I have to go alone, with Fidel ... (and) on horseback,” said Chavez.
Chavez constantly lambastes the United States and has tried to rally countries to an anti-U.S. front to promote socialism around the world. Washington accuses Venezuela of using its oil wealth to destabilize democracy in the region.

The United States said that Venezuela had been late in applying for visas.

“Some members of the Venezuelan delegation do not have Venezuelan nationality and our law has special requirements that take time. These visa (requests) could not be processed because they were not made early enough,” Brian Penn, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Caracas said by telephone.

Local media have reported that Chavez's entourage includes Cubans when he travels. The U.S. spokesman did not specify the nationality of the people who were denied visas.

World leaders are gathering at the U.N. General Assembly from Sept 19-29.